The Experiment
by harrylee94
Summary: When Drake decides to make an experiment of his own, the consequences turn dire for his subject; Hannibal King. With his life once again turned upside-down, can he hold it together and keep the remaining Nightstalkers together? King/Abby. M for language


**Changes**

Danica removed her hand from Jarko's arm.

He really needed to learn to watch his temper. It was getting annoying.

But you know what else was annoying?

Hannibal King.

That piece of shit human thought he could dodge her? Well, he had another thing coming. She was going to extinguish that little glimmer of hope she could see in his eyes, and fill him with fear.

"You're brave King, I'll give you that. But underneath all that swagger, I know what you really fear."

There it was. That spot of darkness creeping into him, the rising heart rate...

This was what she'd loved about him.

King had always been easy to manipulate, and it was clear that being a human had only made it easier.

"What would hurt you more than anything else."

She lodged the heel of her stiletto into the wound on his chest. He bit back a cry of pain, giving Danica a sense of satisfaction. As she pulled it out, she leant forwards again.

Looking down at her mark where she'd left it, she drew out her next words.

"You don't want to go back to being one of us, do you."

The look of pure terror in the bastard's eyes only supported her regained sense of control.

She had him pinned, the piece of shit, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I'm gonna bite you, again, King. And I'm gonna leave you here while you turn. I'm going to watch you, day, after day, as the thirst, keeps building, and building."

King's eyes remained focused on nothing, the hope fading away as the dread took hold.

"And then, when you can't stand it, anymore," the female vampire hit the metal platform with her shoe and closed in on his cheek as the sound of the door opening filled the room.

The look of disbelief that had suddenly appeared on the fucker's face as Drake brought in that little slut was priceless.

"I'm gonna bring, a little girl in here, for you to feed on."

The human tried to swallow his fear, but all it did was to increase the already racing heartbeat mere inches from her ear.

"Would you like that King? Would you enjoy taking her life?"

As she returned to her chair, she smirked.

He was broken, and everyone knew it.

"Now we're getting somewhere my pet."

The meat sack raised his eyes, but they went past Danica.

"You okay Zoë?"

The interrogator growled. How dare he ignore her? Did he have a death wish or something?

He smiled.

It was relief, she was sure.

Pah. She'd give him fucking relief.

As her palm made contact with the bastard's jaw, the sound of a satisfying slap filled the room.

King was sent flying as far as his chains allowed from how much strength she'd put into her swing, and now he was pulling himself off the floor as 'Zoë' screamed.

It was as though someone had turned on a siren.

How the fuck could something so small make such a fucking racket?

Ignoring the distraction, she stood to continue her revenge, but a hand caught her arm.

"Get off…!"

Instead of seeing her brother there, as she'd expected, she was staring into the eyes of the one vampire that could be their salvation.

Shit.

He stared blankly at her, nothing in his features giving any hints as to what was running through his mind, as he always did.

"I think you've had your fun."

Danica lowered her gaze.

She left the room as quickly as she could before sitting in the couch.

If that fucker weren't so important or what he was, she'd have killed him for the impertinence of the interruption. As it was, she had to do whatever he asked just so he didn't kill her.

What she had to do…

Jarko turned up a moment later, still holding his precious dog.

It was one of the best results of the tests yet, and there was no way he could hide that he was proud of it. It was all he seemed to care about these days.

Stupid dog.

They remained in silence for another minute before Asher finally turned up.

"And where were you?"

Her brother tidied up his suit, brushing down the front after re-buttoning it, before answering.

"Had to take the bitch back to his room."

Danica cocked her head to the side.

"So he didn't come out with you."

He shook his head.

The woman frowned. What was he doing?

Getting up off of her seat, she made her way towards one of the laptops.

She'd had cameras placed in that room, so all she had to do was look at the computers and…

Static filled the boxed off section of the screen where it should have shown what was going on in Hannibal King's cell.

Static.

"Fuck."

* * *

><p>When the last of the three musketeers left, Hannibal was back on his knees again, staring at the only other being left in the room as he shut the door.<p>

Shut the door…

So, instead of being trapped in that room with the queen bitch and her groupies, he was stuck with the fucking alpha. The Adam of the vampiric race, homina nocturna. The king of all night walkers.

His day was just getting better and better.

Drake was looking up at the walls, his golden eyes searching for…

He was in the air in a second, hand reaching out to something King couldn't see. It was only when there were sparks flying through the air that he realised what was going on.

"Didn't take you for a shy one."

The vampire didn't respond, dropping the remains of the camera onto the floor as he glared at the human, only one thing showing in his eyes.

Hunger.

Oh shit.

"I always thought you liked an audience, you know?"

He stepped towards the kneeling man before taking the seat that had been, until recently, been occupying little miss fuck face.

They stared at each other for a few moments.

Of course, being the bastard he was, King couldn't sit in silence for too long.

"What the fu…?"

Drake's hand was over his mouth faster than he could say the word 'fuck'. Literally.

But that wasn't the only thing.

The familiar taste of the coppery liquid he'd hope he'd never feel on his tongue again was beginning to fill his mouth.

He tried to spit it back out, but the vampire held his mouth closed and squeezed his nostrils shut.

He tried to fight him off, but there was no way he was going to win against a vampire of his age.

Hannibal tried to hold on for as long as he could, but his lungs started to burn from the lack of oxygen.

Suddenly, his reflexes took hold, and the ancient blood slid down his throat as his body's survival instincts switched on.

He stopped struggling.

What was the point?

What was the fucking point?

He wasn't going to win against this bastard, and now the blood was in his system, he knew he'd already lost.

He was going to become what he loathed. The thing he hated above all other things. And there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Drake pulled his hand away and let King's head sag in defeat with a grin.

Smug bastard.

Slowly, the vampire moved around him.

"That whore doesn't realise the potential my blood has."

He kept circling him. It made him feel like a fucking mouse under an eagle's gaze.

"Her little experiments with those insignificant animals they call dogs were only, how you say, the tip of the iceberg."

The monster stopped behind him.

"So, my little guinea pig, shall we give her a little demonstration?"

Oh… Fuck…

His teeth tore into Hannibal's neck, braking open several major arteries.

He gasped at the pain, realising that this would be his last breath as a human.

His eyes began to droop and he felt his heart slowing as he became weaker and weaker.

He tried to hold on, but it was impossible.

He tried not to imagine what it would be like after, but images of him draining the life out of Zoë kept filling his thoughts.

By the time Drake had stopped, he was almost gone, the fingers of death clutching at the edges of his mind, making it hard to process anything. Anything, that is, except how much he was slipping away.

He felt something rub against his face, but he wasn't sure what it was, only that it, whatever it was, had taken away the wet liquid around his mouth that had begun to irritate him.

The vampire set him down on the floor, the rest of his blood spilling out onto the floor as he stood, wiping his mouth with his hand.

King heard the door burst open and the shouts of a distraught woman.

Ha. Fuck you bitch.

He felt her fingers desperately touching the hole in his throat, as though she could stop it from bleeding out, but they all knew it was too late.

He felt his heart falter.

And again.

And again.

Finally, it stopped beating, and he let himself slip into darkness.

* * *

><p>When the strange man came into the room, Zoë watched him as he approached, taking his coat off and picking up the sword that had been leaning against the wall before sitting on the chair.<p>

That tall man had taken her out of the metal room after the scary woman had hit Uncle King and had chained her up to the weird statue.

She hated that woman.

Except, she wasn't a woman. And those men weren't men. They were monsters.

Mommy always told her that those monsters took people and they never gave them back. Like daddy.

Mommy said that the monsters took daddy, and that he wasn't alive any more, that they killed him.

Zoë wondered if they killed Mommy too.

The big man put some water on a stone and started to scrape it along his sword.

It made her cringe.

Why would he do that? Didn't it break it?

They sat there with nothing but the sound of the stone on the sword for a long time, but Zoë didn't mind the sound any more when he stopped, resting the end on the ground.

"Do you know who I am?"

She thought about it for a moment before she remembered some of the stories mommy had told her.

"You're the gnome king."

"Huh." He got off of the bed and knelt down in front of her so he was at the same level. "The gnome king. How sweet. Tell me child, do you want to die?

Like daddy?

Zoë could remember what mommy had said about the big man in the sky and how he would always look after those who the monsters took away, everyone who was good.

"I'm not afraid. I'll go to heaven."

"There is no heaven."

The man's eyes changed from brown to gold, and the black bits in the middle changed shape.

Did he hurt them?

"No God. No angels. The only thing in your future is nothingness. But what if you could change that? What if you could remain a child forever? Wouldn't you like that? Wouldn't you accept that gift?"

She knew what that meant.

She didn't want to be a monster. She hated the monsters for killing her daddy, and her friends killed those monsters. Monsters just like him.

"My friends are coming to kill you."

The man looked unhappy, and his eyes went back to the way they were before.

He got up off of the ground and sat back on the chair, picking the stone back up and putting his sword on his lap.

"We'll find out soon."

* * *

><p>Abby crept along the corridors, following the trail of burning ashes that Blade had left behind.<p>

So far, the systems hadn't alerted the vampires to their presence, but she knew it wouldn't be long.

She was currently on the floor below the top and was wondering how to get to the next level, but when she heard the sound of glass shattering and screams from above, it was all to obvious.

Running to the end of the corridor, she found the way up; a rope dangling from the metal frame that scaled the top of the building.

Jumping out into the night air, she caught hold of it and began pulling herself up.

She could hear the sounds of a struggle as she finally jumped onto the platform, making sure that no one else could use the rope by cutting it lose.

About fifteen feet away, there was a hole in the floor where there had been until recently a pane of glass, but all that remained was the single bar that had helped hold it up.

Looking over the ledge, Abby froze.

"No."

Using the metal bar to help swing herself into the small room, she landed on the ground next to the only person she thought she had left, lying in a pool of his own blood, staring blankly up at the sky.

Hannibal King.

She felt the urge to cry suddenly welling up inside her, but she pushed it back down, knowing now that it was even more important for her to find Zoë.

Closing the dead man's eyes, she ran over the broken down door and put her earphones in.

As the first wave of familiars hit, she tried to take her mind off of the latest loss and began to think of where Zoë would be.

It wouldn't be with the familiars; the vampires didn't trust them enough.

Danica and the other two were too wild to look after a child.

Which left only one option.

Vampires began to jump down from higher levels, so Abby returned her attention to the task at hand, using both her wrist switchblade and the one hidden in the toe of her shoe to kill them.

Once she'd killed a few, she used her small reprieve to look around for where…

There!

Running up the stairs, she flung open the doors to a dark room to the best sight she'd seen in days.

Zoë smiled at her, excitement showing clearly on her face.

"Abby!"

"Hey!"

Abby knelt down and pulled the young girl into a hug

"You okay?"

The young girl nodded, still smiling.

Good, so they didn't do anything to her.

"Okay. Lets get you out of here."

She started to undo the maniacal when suddenly Zoë's face fell.

"Watch out!"

A vampire came up behind her and grabbed her arms before she could react, but she had a secret weapon.

The bastard cried out as the laser arc cut through him like butter, until he was nothing but burning ashes on the ground.

Once she'd put it away, Abby grabbed onto the young girl's hand and began to lead her out.

"Abby? Where's Hannibal?"

She didn't reply.

"Abby?"

The archer stopped in front of a cupboard.

"Did those monsters kill him?"

Making sure there weren't any of those bloodsuckers around, she knelt down in front of the young girl, unstrapping the bag of King's 'toys' and holding them in between them.

"I need you to keep hold of this. If any of the monsters come for you, I want you to shoot them, okay?"

Zoë took the bag and nodded, her eyes serious.

"Good. Now you stay out of sight until I come and get you."

She opened the door and let the young girl go in, smiling at her before closing it again.

At least she was safe.

Now, the lights.

As much as it helped her to fight in such conditions, the lights also meant electricity, so any alarms that had been hidden could still be set off, alerting even more of those bastards to their presence.

Pulling out her pistol, she fired at the fuse box that was just behind the stairs.

The floor was plunged into darkness.

As she scaled the stairs, Abby pulled out her bow, knocking an arrow.

She could hear the duel between Blade and Drake below, but she kept her eyes on the walkway, arms ready for the draw.

When a vampire suddenly appeared almost a hundred feet away, aiming his own gun at the two combatants, it was the perfect target.

That demon, followed shortly by two others, quickly fell to her bow.

As she began to follow her target, the glass beside her shattered as machine gun bullets whistled past her.

Shit. How was she going to get past this?

Suddenly, there was a single shot, and the machine gun fell silent.

Looking over the bar, Abby could see the small shape of a little girl standing over a burning pile of ashes.

"Zoe! I told you to stay out of sight!"

The girl looked up briefly before running off.

Abby hoped to God that she'd be safe.

Returning her attention to her task and pushing her fears to the side, she realised that the two daywalkers were on the level below.

Pulling up one of the grates on the floor, she swung herself down to a better perch, pulling the arrow with the anti-virus out of her quiver.

Blade was on the ground, and the original was stood over him, sword in hand. They were in range, and there was nothing except a pane of glass between her arrow and it.

She put the arrow on the string.

The monster paused.

"Are you ready to die, mother fucker?"

It raised his weapon, and she fired.

Faster than she thought possible, the red demon turned and caught it before it made contact with his skull, growling at her before returning his attention to his prey, dropping the arrow to the ground.

Quickly, she drew another arrow and fired it into his back, causing him to cry out in pain.

Using the opportunity, Blade grabbed the fallen arrow and rammed it into the vampire's side, making it cry out in agony.

It was a good sound.

As it fell to the ground, the dying creature opened its mouth, releasing a cloud of what appeared to be grey dust that spread through the air.

Jumping down from her spot, she realised something.

It was over.

* * *

><p>Abby came into the metal room a little bit after the big blond man had turned into fire.<p>

Zoë was holding onto Hannibal's hand and her eyes were stinging because she'd been crying.

Why did all of her friends have to die?

It wasn't fair!

"Zoë."

She sniffed.

"We can't leave him!"

She felt a hand on her shoulder, but she shook it off, and leaned her head on the dead man's chest, hoping against hope that she'd hear the familiar thumping of his heart, but there was nothing.

"Zoë. We won't leave him. I promise."

She remained where she was, clutching at King's shirt, letting her tears soak into it.

Abby sighed behind her and walked out the room.

She didn't know how long she was there for, but when she heard the sound of clinking metal, she looked up.

Abby was there again, along with a strange man with a beard.

They were taking the metal bracelets off of him.

Once they were off, Abby looked at her.

"You're going to need to move out the way so we can pick him up, okay?"

She nodded and stood up as she watched her drape one of his arms over her shoulders while the man went out of the room.

As they walked through the bright building, the man came with that tired blade man.

She wondered why he was so tired, but she decided to keep quiet and followed Abby into the lift

No one talked on the way down, but the tired man started to wake up a little bit.

When they reached the bottom, the man led the way through the car park.

"I brought the truck."

He had a funny voice.

Zoë wondered where he was from.

"It's this way."

Five minutes later, they were speeding through the streets, racing towards wherever it was they were going.

At some point, she could feel herself starting to yawn.

And she didn't stop.

She was so tired that she could sleep for a month!

Abby noticed.

"Come here Zoë."

She held out her arm for her to slip under.

Almost as soon as she was cuddled against her, the young girl was asleep.

* * *

><p>It had been almost six hours since their raid, but Abby had only been able to sleep for two.<p>

Blade was back to his usual silent self, preparing himself for that night's hunt somewhere a few miles away, Caulder was busy creating more of the anti-virus and Zoë was sitting with King's body in the room she'd put him in.

She knew her mother was dead now, but she'd already been buried back at the base, so all she had left to remind her of her family was Abby and King.

Since his 'rebirth', Hannibal had become almost a second father to the now orphaned girl. It was near impossible to ever find her upset when she was with him, so it was understandable that she wanted to spend as much time with him as she could, even if he couldn't respond to anything she said or did.

When she'd left her, Abby had told her that she'd give her an hour before she'd come back. It wasn't healthy, lingering over the dead, but it was probably for the best.

Mind you, pushing your emotions into a deep pit wasn't healthy either.

Apart from that moment when she first saw him, she hadn't shed a single tear, bottling up her anguish so she could complete the task at hand.

Now that it was over, she had still been unable to open it up again, so she'd set up her bow to try to fix anything that might have been damaged.

She worked on it for almost half an hour, readjusting the scope, restringing it and replacing any parts that had been broken.

She was about to look at her arrows when she heard it.

Zoë's scream.

Runny as fast as she could, she dashed to where it had come from.

Unfortunately, it was almost on the other side of the compound, so it took her almost a minute before she got there, but as soon as she opened the door, she froze.

"No!"

* * *

><p>Hannibal was surrounded by darkness, by nothingness.<p>

He was still deep in the clutches of that cold limbo between being dead and un-dead.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't escape. He was stuck, waiting to be forced back into the world.

There was always something, a nameless evil that kept trying to break him, to remove the humanity within him, and every time it attacked, he held it off, forcing it back into the darkness, but every time it took a little more of his strength with it.

He was fighting a loosing battle.

He was fucked if knew how long it had been since he'd died, or how long it was going to be before he was sent back to be a monster, but he hoped it would be soon; he wasn't going to hold out much longer.

Suddenly, as though someone had heard his prayers, he felt the fingers of death loosing their grip.

He struggled to free himself, but the hold was still too tight.

Again and again King was bombarded by the evil presence, but he refused to lose his humanity.

The hands started to push him upwards, away from the cold darkness and towards a warm sea of white.

When he finally broke the surface, he took a deep breath, as though he'd been underwater, opening his eyes.

He couldn't see anything clearly. It was just a mass of blobs and colours, and it felt like he was about to pass out.

A scream filled his ears.

He tried to get away from the ear splitting sound and ended up falling several feet onto the ground, causing his shoulder to flare up in pain as he landed on it.

He groaned and pushed himself over onto all fours.

There was something on his shoulder. It was soft and small, but he didn't know what it was…

Looking up, Hannibal saw the one thing he wished wasn't there.

"Hannibal?"

Zoë looked scared and confused, and yet happy at the same time.

"No. You… No! Get Away!"

He pushed himself as far away from her as he possibly could, leaving her stood next to the table he had been until most recently been lying on.

He could feel his throat burning, hear her heart beating, smell the blood coursing through her veins.

He could hear the voices in his head urging him to take her, to taste her.

No! He fucking won't! She was a fucking kid!

He closed his eyes, willing the voices to go away, but they didn't leave.

Something landed on his leg.

Opening his eyes, King could see Zoë watching him expectantly.

Looking down at his lap, at the item she had thrown to him, he realised she knew what he was now.

Picking up the blood bag, he stared at it.

She knew.

She fucking knew, and she wasn't scared?

He frowned at her.

She smiled.

"You need it, don't you?"

He nodded numbly before returning his attention to the bag.

It was O positive, the most common blood type on the planet.

His hands began to shake as he felt his instincts trying to get him to rip it open and drink it all, but his humanity was trying to keep him from becoming the animal he hated.

He tried to open it, but it was no use.

In his frustration, Hannibal flung it away from him and covered his face with his hands.

All of a sudden, the sweetest smell filled the air.

His eyes once again drawn to Zoë, he saw she'd opened the bag and was starting to walk over to him, the smell of the blood wafting through the air.

He felt disgusted with himself but… God, it smelt so fucking good!

Before she came within his reach, the door slammed open.

"No!"

Abby pulled the young girl up into her arms, causing her to drop the bag, its contents spilling all over the floor on contact.

He tried not to look at it, but his eyes kept falling back to the ever-growing puddle.

Abby noticed.

"Who?"

Hannibal forced himself to look at her.

"Drake."

She nodded.

Zoë was struggling in her arm.

"Let go! We've got to help him!"

Looking between her and her old teammate Abby nodded before putting her down again.

"You stay right here."

The girl nodded.

King let his eyes follow the shapely woman as she made her way around the room, picking up another blood bag from the tables.

When she started to walk towards him, he tried to back away again, but he was already up against the wall, so he settled for looking at the floor.

The blood covered floor.

Fuck.

A new smell filled his nostrils. It was smooth and silky and it made his mouth water.

Looking up from the floor, he saw Abby was kneeling next to him, holding out the opened bag.

His eyes flickered between them for a bit before they finally stuck with the bag.

He unconsciously licked his lips as he took it.

Briefly looking back at the two others in the room with him, he put his mouth over the opening and began to drain the bag of its contents.

It tasted like the fucking rainbow.

God, why did it taste so good?

He felt his eyes close as he swallowed the delectable liquid, enjoying every mouthful.

No! This was fucking wrong!

He opened his eyes and looked down at the now drained plastic bag in his hands.

Letting it slip out of his fingers, he let his gaze fall to his hands.

They weren't his hands any more. They were a monster's hands.

Suddenly, another hand came into his vision, grasping his own, followed by another, much smaller one in the other.

Looking up, he found the two people he cared most about in the world smiling at him.

Zoë went over to his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck, causing him to catch his breath.

"It'll be okay Hannibal. We'll help you get better."

He looked over to Abby who gave him a small nod.

He smiled a little and wrapped his arm around the small girl who had attached herself to him..

There was still hope if they had this much faith in him.

**AN - Okay, so I know that this might seem like the end, but it's not.**

**Really. It isn't.**

**Now, I'm generally not very good with multiple POV fics, but I'm hoping I got the general character of each person right.**

**Also, I'm not very experienced in adding swear words into it either, so I'm sorry if it sounds a bit off.**

**Anyway... I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I've enjoyed writing it, and you're going to have to be patient about the next chapter; it's a busy time of year...**


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